Chapter 301 Left
It was two-thirty in the morning when the plane touched down in Beshya. A private car was waiting for them at the airport, and Derrick had his men put all the luggage into the car.
The four adults and the sleeping Tony got into the car, and the chauffeur drove everyone to Derrick’s villa, which was in the suburbs. That was a luxurious place and had a number of different villas in its surroundings. It was obviously located within a luxurious area.
The chauffeur drove the car over and parked it. After that, Derrick spoke to the chauffeur. “You can go home and rest up now.”
“Understood, Mr. Hisson.”
After getting out of the car, Derrick said, “This is the villa I got for myself here in Beshya. Everyone in the neighborhood is a powerful figure here, and if you girls are bored, you can go talk to the neighbors. The ladies here are mostly wives of rich men and often have a lot of free time. There’s no need to be too polite, though, because everyone knows each other here.”
Amelia examined the spacious villa. She could not help but gasp once more at how Derrick was much wealthier than she imagined.
“Derrick, you are richer than I thought. Oh, but you better treasure Tiff because she has an intensive network,” commented Amelia in a meaningful tone.
She was basically hinting that Derrick should not assume that he could mess with Tiffany just because he was rich. Amelia and Tiffany were not as powerful as he was, but if Derrick were to hurt Tiffany, they would empty the limited resources they had just to fight him.
Derrick was a genius, so naturally, he understood what Amelia was hinting at. He could not help but grow more impressed by Amelia. At that moment, he finally understood why Tiffany was willing to go through hell and fight endlessly for Amelia. The old wives’ tale claims that friendships between women are weak, but I guess things only seem that way because some women never truly worked hard for their friendship. Sometimes, women make friends that are there for them forever.
Derrick smiled and replied, “I am not stupid enough to hurt the woman I spent three years courting. If anything, I will treasure her and love her for the rest of my life because it’d be a waste of my time otherwise.”
Amelia’s lips instinctively curved into a smile. Good. At least one of us can lead a happy life.
“You better remember what you promise today, Derrick. If I ever catch you hurting her, I will take her far, far away,” threatened Amelia.
Draping his arm over Tiffany, Derrick confidently announced, “Don’t worry, Amelia. You won’t have to.”
Tiffany felt her cheeks burning red. She would not be surprised if someone were to tell her she looked as bright as an apple at that moment.
She pushed Derrick away and pretended to be annoyed before complaining, “That’s enough from the both of you. I’m standing right here, you know? Geez, I feel like a piece of jewelry being tossed back and forth. Come on, let’s hurry up. It’s almost three, and we can all forget about getting any sleep if we keep wasting our time talking over here.”
After saying all that, Tiffany forged ahead. She was so shy that she could not help but cover her face with her hand.
Amelia could not resist giggling at that funny scene. “Let’s go,” said Amelia.
Tiffany was rather in tune with her tomboy side, so she would never have felt shy if she didn’t love Derrick. It was likely she loved Derrick more than she realized. At that moment, Amelia simply prayed that Derrick’s love for Tiffany was true. Otherwise, Tiffany would be in more pain than anyone could imagine. It was just like how things were with Amelia. She looked fine on the surface, but the truth was that she had already given up on love. Other than Oscar, she could not see herself falling in love with other men.
“When you love someone that deeply, everyone else that comes after will be nothing but his replacement.”
That was one of the most iconic quotes from the television drama that Amelia used to watch.
When Amelia entered the villa, she saw two rows of maids standing at the side. Tiffany was stupefied as she stared at the maids, who had been waiting for them for quite some time.
When everyone entered, the maids simultaneously stated, “Welcome.”
Amelia was smiling a little stiffly at the time. Tiffany, on the other hand, backed away to Amelia’s side to hug her arm. The former shot a strange look over at Derrick before whispering, “D-Derrick, was this your idea?”
It was the middle of the night, so at first, Tiffany thought she had stumbled into a haunted mansion. She entered the villa on her own earlier, and the sight of everyone scared her so much that she almost wet her pants. Is this a surprise or an ambush?
Derrick found that amusing. Releasing a grin, he asked, “Do you not enjoy welcoming gestures like these?”
Tiffany tugged at his arm a little and replied, “D-Derrick… Ah, that sounds so weird. I think I’ll just call you Mr. Hisson. Anyway, don’t get everyone up in the middle of the night just for things like this lest they will assume that we’re divas. Let everyone go to bed already.”
With a smile, Derrick waved his hands and instructed, “You can go back to your respective rooms now, everyone.”
“Understood,” replied the trained maids. With that, they returned to their rooms in an orderly manner.
An elderly guy in his sixties approached them and politely informed, “Mr. Hisson, you’re finally here. I’ve prepared the rooms for your guests, and they can move in right away.”
“Thank you, Jeremy,” replied Derrick respectfully to the elderly man.
After that, Derrick turned to Tiffany and Amelia to introduce everyone to each other. “This is Jeremy,” he started. “He is the butler who helps me maintain this villa.”
“Hello, Jeremy,” greeted Amelia and Tiffany graciously.
Endearing warmth exuded from Jeremy’s eyes when he gazed at the women. Smiling, he replied, “Mr. Hisson told me about the two of you. I gather you’re both Ms. Winters?”
“You can call me Amelia, Jeremy.”
“And you can call me Tiffany.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear that,” replied Jeremy. He was obviously delighted to see how respectful both Amelia and Tiffany were.
Derrick wrapped his arm around Tiffany and happily announced, “Jeremy, this is my girlfriend, and she will be the lady of the house someday. Please take care of her while I’m gone and know that her orders carry the same weight as mine.”
A hint of surprise flashed past Jeremy’s eyes. He thought about it for a while before asking, “But, Mr. Hisson, what about Ms. Halliwell?”
Hearing the mention of that name, Derrick turned grouchy and immediately scolded, “Tiffany is the only woman for me, Jeremy. Everyone else has nothing to do with me!”
Jeremy was quick to hide his shock away. After that, he apologized, “I apologize. Please ignore what I said.”
Pausing for a moment, Jeremy added, “It’s late, Mr. Hisson. Both Amelia and Tiffany look tired from the travel, so how about I take everyone to their respective rooms?”
“Okay.”
Amelia and Tiffany were curious about the woman Jeremy mentioned, but it was indeed too late, so they put that aside and went to the rooms that Jeremy had prepared.
In the meantime, Jeremy stared at Kurt, who was silently carrying Tony in his arms. “Mr. Hisson, who is this?” the butler queried.
More importantly, who is this boy?
Shooting a look at Derrick, Jeremy wondered, H-He could not be Mr. Hisson’s son, could he?
Oblivious to what was going on in the elder’s mind, Derrick simply replied, “That is the bodyguard Amelia hired. The kid in his arms is Amelia’s son, and they are both important guests. Tell the others to tend to both of their needs.”
“Understood, Mr. Hisson.”
Since it was getting late, Derrick retired to his bedroom after saying a few more words.
The night ended soon after.
At around eight o’clock, Amelia and Tiffany walked down the stairs. At the same time, Jeremy was exiting the kitchen. Spotting the women, he smiled and voiced, “Ah, Amelia, Tiffany, you’re up. Come and have your breakfast. I’ll be waking Mr. Hisson as well.”
“Good morning, Jeremy,” greeted Amelia and Tiffany politely after they walked down the stairs.
“Morning.”
Amelia and Tiffany sat down, and about five minutes later, Derrick and Kurt came to join them.
Derrick circled around to Tiffany’s side and kissed her cheek as if no one was there. After that, he asked, “Did you sleep well last night?”
Tiffany could not help but blush. She pretended to be famished and had her head down so low that she was practically stuck to the plate.
Seeing that, Derrick found it especially cute, whereas Amelia, who was sitting next to Tiffany, simply grinned as she watched the couple’s adorable interaction.
Taking the other seat next to Tiffany, Derrick turned to Amelia. “What about you, Amelia? Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah,” replied Amelia as she munched on her breakfast.
Nodding, Derrick queried, “I noticed that Kurt has potential, so I’ve assigned Denise to babysit Tony. Will it be okay if I have Kurt work for me, Amelia? It’s weird for a man to stay home all day to babysit. His talent would go to waste, and his skills will slowly deteriorate, so don’t you think it’s better if he works for me?”
Derrick had always been on the lookout for talent. He also thought that a man like Kurt should venture far and wide to build a career, as opposed to staying at home just to babysit.
Letting out a smile, Amelia responded, “You’ll have to ask Kurt about this. I will definitely agree to it if that is what he wishes.”
Hearing that, Derrick turned to Kurt. “What do you say, Kurt? Don’t misread the situation, though. I’m not asking you to abandon your task to protect Amelia. All I’m requesting is for you to help me train a few men to be better security guards. You can train them right here in the villa. The Hissons run a huge corporation, after all, and our family needs a lot of security guards to keep us safe. Can you train them?”
Kurt looked at Amelia, who nodded at him.
“Okay,” Kurt agreed.
“Great, then it’s settled. As for your pay, I will have to see if you are as great as Tiffany said. If you are, I promise I will reward you handsomely.” Derrick grinned excitedly as he had recruited another talented man into his corporation.
Kurt didn’t respond to that.
He didn’t really care about the money because he had been working for Oscar for years. The latter could be cruel when doing business, but he was not stingy with his subordinates. He would pay Kurt more than anyone else would. Oscar would even transfer funds into Kurt’s private account when the latter did some personal errands for him, and it was more than enough for Kurt to spend the rest of his life in luxury.
After breakfast, Derrick’s phone rang. He frowned and picked it up. No one knew what was said at the time, but Derrick’s expression turned increasingly grimmer as he listened. In the end, he uttered, “Okay, got it. I’ll be on my way now.”
With that, he hung up the phone and apologized, “Sorry, but I have to go home for a while. My mom’s illness acted up again, and she has been taken to the hospital. I have to go check up on her.”
“Hurry, then,” urged Tiffany worriedly. “Send my regards to your mom.”
Pulling her into an embrace, Derrick muttered, “Don’t worry, my mom will be fine. When she recovers, I’ll make time and bring you to her. Then we can talk about our marriage when our relationship stabilizes.”
Blushing from embarrassment, Tiffany urged shyly, “Ah, go back already. We’ll talk about the wedding later.” She thought that it was still too early to talk about marriage since they had just started dating. Surprisingly, she didn’t feel pressured or annoyed when she heard Derrick say all that. If anything, she felt it would be a dream to marry an excellent guy like Derrick. She soon thought about how she would have to be a part of a wealthy family like the Hissons, and that got her to back away from the idea of marriage again.
“Okay, then I’ll head out now. Take care of yourself, okay? Don’t make me worry,” said Derrick.
“Got it. Stop nagging me.”
Letting out a loud laugh, Derrick then took his leave.
When he was out of sight, Amelia turned to Tiffany and commented, “Looks like you’ve really fallen for the guy, Tiff.”
Tiffany, who was staring in the direction Derrick had left in, snapped to her senses as she shyly complained, “What nonsense are you talking about, Babe?”
“Tiff, I am happy to see you are in love with someone else. Love is great. Derrick may be an heir to a wealthy family, and being together with him may be tough, but you can fight through anything so long as you are brave enough. Don’t give this relationship up, especially if he loves you as much as you love him. Don’t be a coward like me and don’t run away from love,” shared Amelia meaningfully.
Amelia had to abandon the city she called home, and she would be lying if she claimed that she was not sad about it at all. She still longed for Oscar and kept recalling the wonderful memories they had made together. Eventually, she wondered if Oscar would panic, even a little, when he learned that she was gone.
What she didn’t know was that when Oscar realized that she had gone missing, he tapped into all of his resources to track her and Tony down. Olivia had it tough as well. She missed Tony too much, and that led to her illness acting up. She had to be hospitalized for six months, and that caused her to develop a hatred for Amelia. That, in turn, would make things more difficult for Oscar and Amelia when they tried to get back together.
Of course, that would happen in the near future. Amelia had no idea that her departure could cause so much trouble.
